Though the United States is about 4% of the world’s population, we
hold around 25%
of the worlds prison population. The US prison population has exploded
since the Reagan Administration, with a 700%
increase from 1970 to 2003. According to The National Employment
Law Project, one-in-four US adults currently have some sort of
criminal record [1]. Mandatory Minimum
Sentencing Laws, the three strikes law, The War on Drugs, Racialization, prison
privatization, and crummy politics have all been major contributing factors for
our prison overpopulation. Understanding the growing prison population in the US
is a formidable undertaking by itself. But, could it be directly tied to
our growing homeless population?
There are around five million ex-prisoners living in the United
States, and they are nearly 10 times more likely
to be homeless then the general public. The California Department of
Corrections stated that around 30 to 50 percent of the state’s parolees in
major urban areas are homeless [2]. According to a
1996 HUD study, 49 percent of homeless adults have reportedly spent five or
more days in a city or county jail over their lifetimes. Prisoner and felons are often treated as second class citizens,
if citizens at all. We have adopted public policies that prevent prisoners from
being able to successfully adapt back to society. Several legal and social barriers
to reintegration hinder prisoners from finding a permanent roof over their head,
and establishing themselves back in the general public. Felons are generally
not allowed access to affordable housing. It becomes near impossible to access
welfare, veteran’s benefits, education, and most especially, employment as an ex-convict.
We have created a social environment that is unquestionably inhospitable for released
prisoners.
So, do I have a correctional plan of action in mind? Not
particularly. There has been growing investment in federally subsidized housing
and transitional housing for ex-convicts, but that’s just putting a band aide
on a larger wound. I think our treatment of convicts is closer to the source of
the problem. I feel there is a growing awareness and disdain for our gargantuan
prison population. Successful reintegration requires experimentation, collaboration,
and funding. There needs to be a complete overhaul with our prison industrial
complex, and we need to systematically asses policies and practices that shed light
on how and how much we need to invest in our transitioning population.
-Isaac Pea
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[1] Rodriguez, M., & Emsellem,
M. (2011). 65 MILLION “NEED NOT APPLY” The Case for Reforming Criminal
Background Checks for Employment. The National Employment Law Project.
[2] California
Department of Corrections, Prevention Parolee Failure Program: An Evaluation
(Sacramento, CA: California Department of Corrections, 1997).
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